In the Dark
by RenaRoo
Summary: Kimiyo is simply trying to finish her research notes for the day when she gets an unexpected visitor. [Femslash February]


Prompt: ( Anonymous ) (For femslash February prompts thingy.) Vixen/Doctor Light. Mari asks Kimiyo why she chose the code-name "Doctor Light."

A/N: Somewhat coincidentally I just reread Dwayne McDuffie's run on _Justice League of America_ (2007-2011) – which also happens to be one of my favorite runs for the Justice League overall, editorial meddling aside – so seeing them teamed up together and especially seeing how Mari for some reason is the only one on the team who knows about Kimiyo's phobia not only has made me also ship this but has made me SUPER happy to get to explore it a touch.

Justice League of America and related properties © DC Comics  
story © RenaRoo

 **In the Dark**

STAR Labs were not exactly the most exclusive facilities to those who happened to wear tights and capes. It was a precedent set by Superman himself, and despite her new position of leadership within the research division, it wasn't one that Doctor Kimiyo Hoshi quite had the power to dismantle yet.

Try as she might.

She was reading through the recent speculative data on their Red Sun Radiation progressive theory when the door to her office opened unassumedly. It could have been anyone, and Kimiyo knew that, but it was still a surprise to see Vixen in full costume before her.

Looking over her reading glasses, Kimiyo tilted her head. "The League needs me?" she asked, beginning to lay her papers down and head toward the locker for her suit.

" _What_ League?" Vixen asked somewhat hopelessly. "Black Canary disbanded."

"I was there," Kimiyo responded, raising a brow. "Same as you. I said what I thought _then_ same as I say to you now, she _quit._ She is not the League. We are. We persist, without leadership if we must." She picked up her papers and tried to find her spot again. "And it seems as though we must." After a pause where her teammate was still standing at her door, Kimiyo let out a small sigh. "It is not an emergency or else you would have used the signal in the Hall of Justice. It is not League business or else you would have utilized the communicators. I must assume… this is a _personal_ visit then?"

"Does it have to be _anything?"_ Vixen asked. "I live in Metropolis, too, you know. I may have just been in the neighborhood."

"STAR Labs is not in a neighborhood, and you wore your costume in order to assume a status of importance and gain clearance to get to the levels where my office resides," Kimiyo noted. "That is quite some effort."

"You're _always_ serious, aren't you?" Vixen laughed.

"It comes with my responsibilities, I am afraid," Kimiyo answered. "My civilian work is just as, if not _more,_ important as my alter ego's."

"Is that a jab at me for choosing to be a model? For using my physical attractiveness to escape war and turmoil in my home country?"

Surprised, Kimiyo looked up from her work yet again only to find Vixen sitting on the edge of her desk, running her nails over a Newton's cradle that Imako and Yasu got her for her birthday. She leaned forward and stopped it after Vixen had tested out its transient properties.

"No, of course not," Kimiyo answered, looking at her teammate curiously. "Why would you assume–"

"You have a touch of a reputation among the community," Vixen said with a partially apologetic smile, "for being a touch quick to judge."

"Is it earned?" Kimiyo asked.

"You _did_ go through a divorce," she replied. "In my experience that allows for some right to judge a touch wiser."

Seeing that she wasn't about to get _any_ of her work done, Kimiyo rested her chin on her hand and raised a brow at Vixen yet again. "What is it that _you_ want from me Vixen?"

"Maybe it's not what Vixen wants, it's what _Mari_ wants," she laughed in return.

"Yes, alright, what is it that _Mari_ wants from me today?" Kimiyo asked again.

"A night on Metropolis for a start," she replied gently, crossing her legs.

"In suits or out of them?" Kimiyo interrogated logically.

"I'd like to get out of them eventually, but sure, we can _start_ in them," Mari teased. "And we'll work on your small talk, like maybe just how you decided on your field, got your name. I'll tell you all about the way I used to play tag in Zambesi. It'll be a date. With suits."

"Because I don't like the dark," Kimiyo said immediately.

Blinking in confusion, Mari tilted her head. "What?"

"That's why I went into spectrometry initially," she elaborated. "I prefer light. I wanted to learn more about it. Keep it on." When Mari was still looking confused, Kimiyo sighed. "Small talk."

"Right," Mari laughed. "Like I said, we'll work on it."


End file.
